


Such sound and fury

by cakewizard



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, M/M, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2013-06-12
Packaged: 2017-12-14 17:40:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cakewizard/pseuds/cakewizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stop getting yourself into stupid fights, moron, he said with a fondness in his voice that had Jim's throat close up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Such sound and fury

First time is a messy fuck in the back of a bar after Bones finds him with a broken nose and a split lip. He's too drunk to remember what he said that pushed McCoy so over the line that he thought kissing him was a better alternative to punching him in the face. Not that Jim doesn't appreciate the thoughtfulness, is just that he's not used to being treated so kindly. So he pushes at Bone's shoulders and scratches his blunt nails across the fabric of his cadet's reds, kissing him harder and rougher than he should've.

Bones takes it, takes him, whispering an honest-to-God prescription of all the meds Jim would need to cure his fucking stupidity.

 

* * *

 

Second time is after Jocelyn calls to say she's getting married again to some lawyer Bones used to know in school. Jim can hear all the tension in Bones' voice when he asks after Joanna, if they will maintain their current arrangement, if he can still come over and see her the next weekend. Jim doesn't hear Jocelyn's response, but he can feel it later when McCoy slides into bed next to him, shoulders shaking with anger and something Jim isn't sure he wants to put his finger on right now. 

Jim fucks him slow and gentle that night. Picks up the pieces of his armor and glues them back together. Bones comes with a sigh inside his mouth, eyes pressed tightly shut, and for the life of him Jim doesn't have the heart to let him go.

 

* * *

 

Third time is a tricky bastard holding a knife against Bones' throat demanding to know where he keeps the drugs. All the nurses in the Sickbay hold their collective breaths as Bones talks the guy out of it. It isn't worth it, he says, if you kill me you'll never get them anyway, why don't we go to my office and I'll get you the real stuff. Jim has the guy stunned the moment he let's go, his phaser still warm in his hand as he looks up at McCoy and see that his hands, his goddamn surgeon hands, are as steady as they ever were and that only his eyes show a hint of the fear that Jim himself is feeling.

He closes himself over Bones back like an octopus that night, determined to never let go, to never let him out of his damn sight. It takes a lot of talk, two orgasms and a threat with a hypospray to knock Jim out of it and into deep slumber under McCoy's warm sheets. McCoy himself doesn't sleep that night, still too scared of the fact that one more second and he might have never gotten to see his daughter again or the farm he grew up in or Jim fucking Kirk.

 

* * *

 

The hiatus between numbers four, five and six stretch on without mention. A hand on the shoulder, a sly remark after a shore leave, the smell of perfume. McCoy loses count of the times his heart had been broken by a flick of the Captain's wrist. He's not sentimental enough to keep thinking about it, he's a doctor and a damn good one. He'd rather pass out from exhausting after a ten-hour surgery than to beg for scraps of Jim's attention. Five years into space, of darkness, sound and fucking fury had left McCoy lonely and cold, more often than not seeking refuge in his own liquor cabinet and in the easy gossip of his nurses. Hearing them talk of how handsome and unattainable their Captain was, how lucky anyone would be to have him just once.

 

* * *

 

Lucky number seven happens unexpectedly, like all good things in life. Their latest stop at an Earth Colony comes with some much-expected recorded transmissions from friends and family back home. Jim watches as McCoy takes his recorded message and cradles it gently against his chest. Jim's at his door that night, requesting permission to enter. He's aware he hasn't been as close to McCoy as he used to; that he had pushed a little too much and now Bones was just close to being out of his reach. McCoy welcomes him in with a smile, says he got a message from home, that Joanna is a smart young thing and that she sent him some of her drawings where there were pictures of Jocelyn, her husband, Joanna and himself, all holding hands under a bright blue sky. He pours one for Jim and a generous one for himself, saying that, after they finished this five-year mission, he would probably go back home, lay low for some time, watch Jo grow.

Something black and ugly and dirty crawls up Jim's spine. Something possessive and wrong. Something lonely. He kisses McCoy before he even starts drinking, their glasses untouched as the night goes on and Jim is reacquainted with McCoy's lean muscles and low moans. A part of him doesn't want Bones back at Earth with his daughter and family, wants to crawl under Bones' skin and never leave. A part of him doesn't want Bones to be happy without him.

 

* * *

 

Bones has him in an uncomfortably intimate position, lying face to face as he pulls him apart, tearing at his seams. There is a dark bruise over his sternum that looks too much like a boot print to Jim's liking. A reminder of their latest alien adventure. Jim himself is supporting a broken foot and a couple of bruises on his arms where the guards had tossed him into a pit full of gross stuff that would've tried to suck his blood out of his ears if Spock hadn't saved his ass in time. Bones had been separated from the group and taken to the planet's sick King to try and heal him, and of course Bones had to go and do just that. Fucking Hippocratic Oath bullshit. They had tried to keep him there, bound like a slave. Jim could still see where the manacles had chaffed the skin of his wrists as his always steady hands grasped his hips in a grip too close to painful. His fingers closed around the sweaty nape of Bones' neck, holding on as he broke Jim in half, saying stuff he never even thought about, like how Bones was a fucking good doctor and he would kill him personally if he ever left him to be some King's bitchy healer.

Bones chuckled, hoarse and breathless and beautiful. Hazel eyes barely managing to stay open, and Jim got to watch as Bones lost his grip on control and started fucking him hard, harder. He closed his hand over Jim's anxious erection, making him come apart completely with a silent cry. Bones traced words against the skin of his chest while Jim was still tripping in afterglow bliss, gentle and adoring. And in that moment Jim felt comfortable and warm and at home.

Bones took a shower in the morning and reminded him os his next physical. His hands lingering longer over Jim's bruised skin.

Stop getting yourself into stupid fights, moron, he said with a fondness in his voice that had Jim's throat close up. He said nothing as he watched him go, wanting nothing more than to ask him to stay.

 

* * *

 

A planet with singing towers made him remember an old TV show his mom used to make him watch when he was a kid and she needed some girl time for herself. It was about an alien who had a time machine and used to take girls out on adventures. By the end of their time together the girls would always have something horrible happened to them. Jim only watched the show for the space jokes. Bones slaps him hard on the back while barking out a laugh when he tells him this.

"Which one are you, Jim?," he asks later between messy kisses and breathless moans as Jim's thigh presses harder against his half-hard erection, "The girl or the alien?"

 

* * *

 

Jocelyn isn't half as awful as Bones had described her. She offers him a cup of coffee, the good stuff, while her husband and Bones talk outside and Joanna is sprawled on the grass with her crayons and papers. 

They stay silent for a long moment, overhearing the two men's conversation about education fees, and taxes. How domestic it sounded. Jim looked out of the window and saw the man Bones used to be, could've been, before he followed Jim into the great big nothing; darkness, sound and fucking fury.

"I knew I lost him when all we used to talk was the weather," Jocelyn said. He looks at her, and remembers the singing towers. "He is great for Jo, and she adores him," Jocelyn says, "Won't shut up about her daddy that works up in the stars, healing people."

Jim feels the pads of his fingers become numb and tries to remember what his last conversation with Bones had been about.

"Sometimes I miss him terribly," Jocelyn says to herself, excluding Jim from her thoughts.

Joanna brings him her picture of him and Bones on a Starship in the night sky. He thanks her and holds her tight and close, and only lets go when Bones tells him its time to leave.

 

* * *

 

Numbers blur after a while. Uhura gives him a knowing smile across the bridge one day and he thinks that everyone on the damn ship must know by now. Bones calls him to say he will be submitting his report on inventory that afternoon and that they are low on antibiotics and gauze, Jim ends the call with a joke Bones is too grumpy and old to get.

He keeps Joanna's drawing in a drawer along with a few trinkets Bones had given him over the years and a brand-new set of chess pieces Spock gave him for his birthday some years ago and that he never had the heart to use. Bones keeps his socks close to the bed because he's old and his feet get cold in the night.

They make plans for the next shore leave in hoarse whispers and sleepy remarks, their limbs tangled and intertwined.


End file.
